Mate
by Bookworm12345
Summary: "Never. Touch. Her. Again," Tyler literally growls out with one arm wrapped a little too tightly around her waist. Caroline has a feeling that his eyes look like they do during the full moon, but she's a little too concerned with staying upright to look.


So yeah, apparently my muse likes playing with Tyler and Caroline instead of working on my multichapter story like she should be. Honestly, I think she's trying to tell me something by making me write these...

Inspiration for this one comes from **Twotoe**, who was my first (and as of posting this, only) reviewer for _Alpha_. If you guys want me to continue these, review with something you want to see or send me a private message. Otherwise, you might have to wait awhile.

Spoilers: End of House Guest. Also has references to what I think is going to happen in the next episode, and a wink to my other oneshot _Alpha_, although you don't have to read that one to understand this.

* * *

Caroline wasn't exactly sure how this had happened. If someone had told her a year ago- forget a year, six months ago worked just fine- if someone had told her six months ago that she'd be a vampire and dating Tyler Lockwood, who happened to be a werewolf, she would have laughed herself silly.

And yet somehow she wouldn't give it up for the world.

* * *

Damon doesn't understand.

"He's a werewolf," he keeps saying whenever the subject comes up. "One bite and you're dead."

Caroline just smiles at him and goes back to whatever she's doing at the time. She doesn't feel the need to inform him that Tyler would never hurt her. Even his full moons are calmer since he's come back from wherever he'd gone with Jules. He still hasn't told her. Whenever she asks, he just smiles and distracts her.

Besides, keeping Elena safe and happy now that they're finally dating takes up enough of Damon's time that he won't do anything as long as Tyler doesn't start it.

* * *

Stefan doesn't understand either, but he tries.

They sit at the Grill one day when Matt's not working and have coffee. "You're being careful, right?" he asks.

Caroline raises an eyebrow at him (Tyler's been rubbing off on her in all the best ways) and doesn't answer. She asks, "Are you being careful with Katherine?" instead and enjoys how the tips of Stefan's ears turn light pink when he's embarrassed.

* * *

Tyler has a romantic sweet side, she discovers quickly.

She wakes up to something tapping at her window one night and finds him throwing pebbles (gently, so that her window doesn't break). "What are you doing here?" she asks quietly- her mom's actually home tonight.

He looks nervous. "I had an idea," he says, and holds out a hand. Caroline takes it and goes with him as he leads her to a picnic blanket he's spread out on her lawn. "There's supposed to be a meteor shower tonight," he explains, and shrugs. "I thought..."

"Tyler," she whispers, awed by what he'd done for her, and hugs him as tightly as she dares. "Thank you," Caroline says after a second of searching for anything to say. "Just- thank you."

* * *

He's also pretty scary when he's mad, she finds out when a visiting werewolf discovers that she's a vampire and decides to torture her for shits and giggles.

The first thing Tyler does after getting her unchained is to deck the other werewolf. "Never. Touch. Her. Again," he literally growls out with one arm wrapped a little too tightly around her waist. Caroline has a feeling that his eyes look like they do during the full moon, but she's a bit too concerned with staying upright to look. "Don't even look at her. If you ever hurt her again..." He trails off, allowing the man lying huddled on the ground in front of them to connect the dots. "Do you understand me?"

The older man nods frantically, but stays silent.

"I think you should apologize to Caroline," Tyler says, voice calmer now but still holding that undercurrent of danger.

"Sorry," the man whimpers without looking up at her.

"What was that?"

"I'm sorry." He says it loud enough for a human to hear this time, and Tyler's arm around her waist relaxes a little bit.

"Better," her boyfriend says. "Leave."

As soon as the man's out of sight, Tyler starts to shake. "Are you alright?" he asks, hands moving across her arms, her neck, her face, checking for damage.

"I'm fine," she tells him, pushing back her sleeves to show him that any marks that the vervain-covered chains might have left are healed. The only sign left on her to show that anything had ever happened is the little bit of blood in her hair. She doesn't think that she'll show him that, though, with how worried he looks.

* * *

Eventually she manages to break down Tyler's walls enough for him to tell her what that day in the woods had been about.

He didn't tell her everything, she knows that, but he did tell her enough to satisfy her curiosity.

Jules had told him that he was one of the strongest alphas she'd ever met. And that status came with the responsibilities to look after his pack and to find a mate.

The first thing that had crossed his mind when Jules had told him was her name.

* * *

It shouldn't hurt when Matt looks at her like she's a slut for dating his best friend, but it does.

But then Tyler looks at her across the pool table with that smirk and she has to smile back, and she can ignore Matt again for a little while.

Because while she'd loved Matt, they'd never really recovered from how he reacted to the knowledge that she's a vampire. Even though Damon had compelled him to forget, Caroline remembers. Tyler knew and accepted it before they happened. She's still the same Caroline to him, even with a liquid diet.

She's still his mate.

And she's never been happier.


End file.
